The Pool Guy Podcast Show

A dog-friendly backyard can turn a routine pool stop into a safety problem, a chemistry problem, and a pricing problem all at once. We’ve both seen it: you open the gate with your hands full, a dog tries to bolt, and suddenly you’re one misstep away from chasing someone’s pet through the neighborhood. We share simple habits that prevent the chaos, including how a quick distraction (like a chew tre...

If you’ve ever paid for marketing and wondered, “Did that actually get me a pool account?”, we’re getting brutally practical about what works and what tends to waste money. We walk through the real trade-offs between old-school tactics like door hangers and newer realities like Ring doorbells that make door-to-door sales harder than ever. The goal is simple: help you get more pool service customer...

Rain can turn a normal pool route into a week of damage control, but it doesn’t have to. We walk through a practical rainy season plan built for pool service pros who want fewer missed stops, fewer angry calls, and fewer “mud pool” nightmares. The starting point is simple and overlooked: research your area’s seasonal rainfall trends and compare them to current forecasts, so you’re planning with da...

Salt systems are supposed to make pool care easier, so why do so many owners end up stuck at 100% output, watching pH climb, and dreading the next replacement salt cell bill? We walk through how to pick the right size salt cell for your pool so your saltwater chlorine generator can maintain steady free chlorine without overworking the equipment or creating water balance headaches. We also get real...

The fastest way to lose money in pool service is not a bad test kit or a missed brush. It is a pricing system that looks “simple” on paper but collapses the moment chemical costs jump or one pool starts chewing through tablets. We walk through the big decision every pool service pro faces: do you bundle everything into one white-glove monthly service fee, or do you charge separately for the work a...

You didn’t get into pool service to work six days a week forever, you did it to get your time back. We talk about what it actually takes to build a pool service business that supports a four-day workweek, with steady income from weekly service accounts and enough breathing room to enjoy your weekends again. I’m sharing practical, field-tested decisions that separate “busy” from “optimized,” especi...

A green pool is gross, loud, and inconvenient, but it can also be the best “proof of skill” marketing you’ll ever earn. We talk through why green pool cleanups and algae removal can elevate your pool service business, how the dramatic before-and-after builds instant trust, and why a single turnaround can open the door to better clients and even commercial opportunities when you’re properly certifi...

No suction on a manual pool vacuum can turn a simple cleanup into a frustrating guessing game, especially when the skimmer looks like it’s working. We break the problem down into a field-tested troubleshooting order that saves time: confirm real skimmer suction safely, then use the filter pressure gauge (PSI) as your truth meter for flow. When pressure is high, suction is usually low, and a dirty...

Chlorine that keeps crashing to zero can make you feel like you’re doing everything “by the book” and still losing. We dig into the real-world reasons pools won’t hold free chlorine in summer, when water temps climb, the UV index spikes, and normal dosing routines suddenly stop working. I share what I’ve seen across years in the field, including why a pool can chew through a gallon of liquid chlor...

The fastest way to ruin a pool isn’t a broken pump or a bad filter, it’s a handful of totally preventable homeowner habits that quietly sabotage circulation, sanitation, and access. We break down the real-world “stumbling blocks” pool pros run into every week and how we talk to customers about them without turning the relationship into a fight. If you service pools, this is the kind of practical f...

Fill water can look perfectly clear and still wreck a startup. If there’s iron, copper, tannins, or other contaminants in the source, they can end up staining a new finish, clouding the water, and turning a “simple” startup into weeks of cleanup. We talk with Joe Laurino of Periodic Products, known throughout the pool industry for Culator metal removal, to get practical about what to test for and...

A pool can look perfect on Friday, then turn an eerie green tint right after you shock it and suddenly everyone swears it’s algae. We’ve seen it on routes and heard it from homeowners: clear walls, no visible growth, but the water has a strange color cast that shows up fast. The fix starts with stopping the guesswork and running a simple, chemistry-driven test that tells you what you’re actually f...

Pool water can look crystal clear and still be quietly destroying your surfaces and equipment. We sit down with Joe  Laurino of Periodic Products, known to many pool pros for Culator metal elimination, to break down what “balanced water” really means and why it is the first step in preventing metal staining, corrosion, and costly repairs. If you’ve ever wondered why a heater fails early, why plast...

Your pool route does not need more hustle, it needs a cleaner sales system. We walk through how to position PoolRx as a high-value, once-a-year upgrade that helps prevent algae, improves water clarity, and lowers chlorine demand, while also protecting your profit when chemical prices keep moving. We share a simple Good Better Best framework you can apply immediately: buy during spring promotions t...

Algae that keeps coming back can make even great pool techs feel like they are chasing ghosts, especially when a customer says, “But we already added the mineral unit.” I’m joined by Fred Square from PoolRx to get brutally practical about what actually changes outcomes: correct sizing by gallons, clean filtration, smart placement, and pump run time that lets minerals dissolve the right way instead...

A black stain shows up on the pool floor right after you add cal-hypo and your brain jumps straight to “drain it and acid wash.” We slow that moment down and explain what’s usually happening: copper that was already there, hiding as copper sulfate, getting oxidized by chlorine into black copper oxide. Once you understand that chemistry, you stop chasing the symptom and start fixing the cause.  We...

Borates get talked about like they’re a cure-all for pool problems, but that belief is exactly what gets pool owners and pool pros into trouble. We sit down with industry veteran Bob Lowry to separate hype from real pool water chemistry, and to explain what borates actually do when you add them to a swimming pool. If you’re chasing constant pH rise, fighting recurring algae, or trying to make a sa...

Chlorine tablets can feel like the simplest path to a clean pool, until the water starts fighting back. We dig into what really happens when trichlor becomes the main sanitizer: cyanuric acid (CYA) climbs, chlorine gets “slower,” and algae can show up even when your test kit says the free chlorine looks fine. We walk through the practical chemistry behind it, including why CYA is more than just “s...

“99% trichlor” sounds like a mic-drop statistic, but it’s also one of the most persistent sources of confusion in pool care. We sit down with Bob Lowry to untangle what that number actually means, why “purity” is not the same thing as “chlorine strength,” and how the industry’s use of available chlorine (based on a chlorine gas reference) warps the way products get talked about on the truck and at...

Copper sounds like the perfect pool hack: add a “mineral system,” fight algae, and use less chlorine. The reality is more complicated, and that gap between marketing and chemistry is where stains, green hair, and unsafe water conditions show up. We’re joined by industry legend Bob Lowry, whose voice and teaching still carry weight across the pool industry, to give a clear-eyed answer to the questi...

A pool finish can look “ruined” overnight, yet the real cause might be completely normal plaster behavior. I walk through the plaster problems that trigger the loudest complaints, the ones that quietly build over months, and the ones that only show up years later, right when the pool service pro is the easiest target. If you’ve ever inherited a pool with weird discoloration, streaks, or blotchy sh...

Robotic pool cleaners get all the hype, but hype does not keep a pool clean on Tuesday morning when the wind kicks up and dirt drops to the floor. We walk through why the suction side pool cleaner is still the number one choice for a lot of pools and a lot of pool service pros, especially when you care about total cost, repairability, and how often the cleaner truly runs without anyone “rememberin...

One careless twist of a lid can turn a normal pool stop into a choking, lungs-burning emergency. We get real about the kind of “pool guy knowledge” you usually learn the hard way and how to build safer habits before something goes wrong on your route. We start with trichlor tablets and why unknown buckets, sealed feeders, and even closed-off floaters can become a concentrated chemical gas trap whe...

If you could hop in a time machine and give your younger self one page of business advice, what would you say and what would you beg yourself to stop doing? I take that question seriously and go back to 1988 when I started pool service at 16. What comes out is a set of lessons that every pool technician, pool service pro, and pool route owner can use to build a calmer and more profitable business....

A chemical brand doesn’t survive since the 1960s by accident and Hasa’s acquisition of Biodex is a sign these formulas are sticking around for the long haul. We talk through why this partnership is a big deal for pool service pros, then get practical about the Biodex products that earn repeat use on real routes, not just on a spec sheet. If you’ve been hunting for reliable pool chemicals, proven s...